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Bitcloud wants to replace the internet

"We want to replace YouTube, Dropbox, Facebook, Spotify, ISPs, and more with decentralised apps based on proof of bandwidth."

This was the bold statement announced last week from Bitcloud, a distributed autonomous corporation that hopes to "decentralise the current internet" so it can "create a new internet to replace it".

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So far, Bitcloud is only a concept, but it has already ruffled the feathers of numerous cryptocurruncy aficionados. This form of "new internet" is not exactly straightforward, with even its non-technical whitepaper bemusing some. However, if you're familiar with the likes of Tor, Bittorrent and cryptocurrencies, you'll already have a basic understanding; it's just a matter of putting the pieces together.

What Bitcloud is proposing is a Tor-like anonymous internet made up of numerous nodes that carry encrypted data; unlike Tor, nodes will use any incoming traffic to mine for cloudcoins, the Bitcloud cryptocurrency. This gives those using the anonymous network an incentive to contribute to the infrastructure, because not only do more nodes mean a faster browsing experience, but there is the promise of capital from simply contributing to the system.

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The same concept applies for hosted content. Any content hosted on a server needs to pay a sort of "toll charge" any time data is transferred from the server to the node. However, the more hits a website receives, the richer the server becomes, allowing for a sort of perpetual growth and a system in which, theoretically, everyone earns money from everyone else.

It is this idea of incentive that is so crucial, and unique, to Bitcloud: "One of the many problems of certain free and open source projects in the past has been the lack of a profit incentive," explain the developers. "With Bitcloud, nodes on a mesh network can be rewarded financially for routing traffic in a brand new mesh network. This removes the need for Internet Service Providers."

Wired.co.uk spoke to Amir Taaki, a British software developer and expert in cryptocurrency, who seemed excited about the concept, but had some reservations about Bitcloud specifically: "The potential from combining swarms and DHTs (concepts from BitTorrent) with a blockchain (concept from Bitcoin) is enormous.

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The blockchain is a new data structure in computer science and arguably more important than Bitcoin itself. We still haven't explored all the applications of it. Twister is my favourite of these new wave of projects exploring this, and this is the final puzzle piece in usable crypto. Megaupload, The Pirate Bay, FrostWire and other groups are all jumping on the bandwagon but I think Twister is the most advanced."

Twister seems to be capable of many of Bitcloud's underlying features, except it's limited to microblogging: "With this technology we can do many, many things", explains Taaki, "[we can] maintain an identity, build a distributed reputation around that identity, coordinate contracts between identities, distribute anonymous blogs and webpages which is fast to load unlike Tor/other systems, and send private messages. Basically all the functions of the Silk Road but uncensored and usable (deal with nicknames)."

Taaki explains that there are a lot of fundamental similarities between Bitcloud's proposals and Twister, but that Twister is already seven months in development, operational and run by a trusted developer. Bitcloud, he says, is more of a fancy version of PayFile, but it is nonetheless part of "a greater effort" that's probably worthy of our attention.

The existence of other similar -- and functioning -- ideas (Twister, MediaGoblin) means we probably shouldn't dismiss this as vapourware just yet. A fast, anonymous, and decentralised internet that's not at the whim of arbitrary ISP enforced regulations (whilst also having its own self-perpetuating currency) sounds a bit too good to be true, but not impossible.

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At this stage Bitcloud asks more questions than it can answer, but it's a novel concept that, as Taaki said, may have enormous potential.

Wired.co.uk got in touch with the founders of Bitcloud but have yet to hear back from them.